Beyoncé reinvents music marketing

Beyoncé’s surprise new self-titled album is the fastest-selling album in iTunes’ history, clocking up 828,773 sales around the world in its first three days.
Photo: AP

by
Ben Sisario

New York The release of a blockbuster album has historically come with a few standard marketing moves. Flood the radio with an early single. Book as many TV appearances as possible. Line up partnerships with big retailers and consumer brands.

But at midnight last Thursday, when
Beyoncé
released her latest album, she did none of those things. Instead, she wrote, “Surprise!" to her more than 8 million Instagram followers, and the full album – all 14 songs and 17 videos of it – appeared for sale on iTunes.

The stealth rollout of the album, Beyoncé, upended the music industry’s conventional wisdom, and was a smashing success.

Apple reported on Monday that it had become the fastest-selling album in its history, with 828,773 sales around the world in its first three days.

“I didn’t want to release my music the way I’ve done it," Beyoncé said in a release, which so far represents the only public comments that she or her label Columbia have made.

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Though very few acts could attract the same attention as Beyoncé, the ­episode contains some lessons – and possibly a future blueprint – for the music industry. In bypassing the industry’s traditional promotional machinery, she demonstrated social media’s power to amplify news and to forge a direct connection to her audience. The release was “designed to highlight that it’s about her and her fan relationships", said Alice Enders, a media analyst with the firm, Enders Analysis, in London.

‘From me to my fans’

In a news release, Beyoncé said: “There’s so much that gets between the music, the artist and the fans. I felt like I didn’t want anybody to give the message when my record is coming out. I just want this to come out when it’s ready and from me to my fans."

The news quickly spread well past Beyoncé’s core audience, however. The online reaction to the album’s release – according to data from Twitter cited by Billboard, the news generated 1.2 million tweets in 12 hours – became a news story in itself. Other stars such as
Katy Perry
and
Lady Gaga
promoted it on social media, magnifying the attention. The album quickly gained critical acclaim. The release also showed the marketing value of no marketing. Typically, to spur sales for high-priority albums, record companies follow Hollywood’s time-tested strategy of repeatedly pointing consumers to a specific release date, and piggybacking on the promotional might of big brands. Justin Timberlake, for instance, blitzed late night-television and was in commercials for Target and Bud Light Platinum before releasing his album The 20/20 Experience in March.

Beyoncé also bucked other industry trends. At a time when singles are the dominant sales unit for pop music, the album was presented to fans as a complete multimedia work to be purchased in its entirety for $US15.99. Accompanying the songs is a collection of videos by celebrated directors such as Hype Williams and Terry Richardson.

As Beyoncé explained in a video posted to her Facebook account, she wanted the album to be consumed and appreciated as a full artistic expression.